Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-08-26
THE LAND OF THE THUGS.
A VILLAGE IN INDIA PEoPLED EN-
TIRELY BY MUHDEREkS.
Men Who Turn Murder Into a Re
llgion and Offer Up Thanks
IN Heaven When It's Done.

"Well, says the landlord OF our hotel
at Jabalpur (the halfway house" of the
long journey from Bombay to Calcutta),
''now that you've seen the ruins of the
Hindu citadel, and been over the native
cantonment, and visited the temple on
the hill yonder, and gone round the
marble rocks of the Nefbuddha, there's
nothing left for you to see here except
the Thugs" The grim name seems TO
strike upon me with sudden chill,
often though l heard it before, writes
David Ker in the New York Mail and
Express; for it is one thing to hear or
read about the terrible strangers of
the East and quite another thing to
find oneself Unexpectedly face to face
with them. Moreover, although l have
already seen ordinary murderers by the
score in Siberian chain-gangs, West
Indian penitentiaries, Brazilian prisons,
Turkish and Syrian fortresses, this is my
first experience of men who turn murder
itself into religion, pray devoutly for
its success, and offer up heartfelt thanks
giving to heaven when it is done.
"The Thugsp echoes an American
tourist who has the next room to ours,
stepping out suddenly upon the veranda.
"Well, I'm just starting to have look
at them myself SO, if you and your lady
are ready to go, l goess we can all start
together"
Away we all three go accordingly
along the broad, straight, dusty high
road, which is fortunately shaded to
some extent from the burning sun by the
vast banner-like leaves of the palm trees
that stand ranked like soldiers along
either side of the way, alternating with
clumps of feathery bamboos, whose
crested tips, tapering like gigantic fish
ing-poles, sway languidly in the morn
ing breeze.
''Who are these Thugs, anyhow"
asked the American. Il just know that
they're always numbering people, and
that's all l do know"
"Well, said /, "most of what l know
comes from Colonel Sileman and Colonel
Meadows Taylor, who were the chief
agents in putting them down. The
original system, ages ago, was simply a
continual human sacrifice to Kali, the
goddess of murder, from whom Calcutta
(Kali-Kuttah, or Kali's Temple) took Its
name. The theory was that the world
was overpeopled, and that Kali's servants,
the Thugs, had to clear off the super
fuous population by little iudicious
numbering every now and then. So
whenever they could waylay any man in
q lonely place they stranged him with a
silk handkerchief and then buried him :;
and this they called the good work ;
This went on for ages upon ages,
without any one having the least
suspicion of it. Men kept disappearing
here and there, and nobody knew how.
At first the murders were simply relig-
ious rite, without any afterthought of
plnnder; but afterwards they began to
combine robbery with murder, and to
pick out as victims those who were worth
plundering. However, the English had
been in India for years before any one
dreamed that 'Thuggee' existed. At
last a Thug chief, being under sentence
for some crime, betrayed his comrades to
save his own life, and then the whole
story came out, and the Thugs were
seized and imprisoned. At first the
British commissioner of the district
where the discovery was made wouldn't
believe t4at all these horrors could have
been going on so long without being
found out; but when the old chief dug
up thirteen skeletons on the very spot
where the commissioners tent wa,
pitched, he began to change his mind
But here we are at the place"
We halt suddenly before tall, gray,
gloomy building, at the door of which
announce myself as newspaper CORE
spondent, and we are at once admitted
although the Hindu janitor looks with nC
small wonder at Mrs. Ker as she enters
and asks whether the bibi logue Qady) i.
q correspondent too.
Just then up comes the English in
spector, who greets lis heartily and usher$
us into what looks at first like "Chil
Scores of little brown figures are plating
baskets, twisting ropes or cutting ou
, sheets of canvas for tent making, as busily
as bees.
"But where on earth are the murder
ersi" cries my American friend, staring
around him in amazement. IF thes,
children are precocious enough II
straugle grown men already, they go
} long way ahead of our Yankee boys a
home ~
"Oh, this is only reformatory," say
the inspector, laughing; "where we keel
the children of the Thugs, or tugs, a
they're really caled-a very good nam
for strangers, by -the-by. The papas ar
in their village just across the road, whicl
they're never allowed to leave, and
you like we'll go over and look a
themW
!. On the other side of the road stands
, high bamboo palisade, above which pee
, the grass thatches Of number of tin
, native huts. The one narrow entranc
of this Enclosure is guarded by magniii
cent Sikh soldier. tall, strong ant
, shapely as bronze statue of Hercules
whose bold, swarthy face and keen blacl
eyes look very picturesque beneath hi
crimson turban. After exchanging
word or two with our conductor, h
steps back. with military salute to let u
pass in. and the next moment we ar
standing amid the most formidable gan
, Of murderers upon the face of the earth
These human vampires who now gathe
round me, every one of whom has take
, more lives than any public executioner j
Europe, are to the outward eye a set @
quiet, slouching, meagre old men, VIII
might be a gang of beggars, group Q
: harmless village folk, a party of super
annua.ed native workmen, or anythin
on earth but what they really are.
"That's the chief, . whispers my guide
! pointing to a small, lean, gray-bear
} with white turban, who is sitting be
fore the nearest hut, rocking a child o.
his knee, and stroking its thin littl
brown face with the hand that has she
the blood of his fellow-man like water.
ALA nI- him v 70 ininnd I.hn,,r ,,nnn